
Remembering Communism
Private and Public Recollections of Lived Experience in Southeast Europe
Stefan Troebst(Editor)
Central European University Press
Published on 1. October 2014
Book
Hardback
640 pages
978-963-386-034-2 (ISBN)
Description
Remembering Communism examines the formation and transformation of the memory of communism in the post-communist period. The majority of the articles focus on memory practices in the post-Stalinist era in Bulgaria and Romania, with occasional references to the cases of Poland and the GDR. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, including history, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology, the volume examines the mechanisms and processes that influence, determine and mint the private and public memory of communism in the post-1989 era. The common denominator to all essays is the emphasis on the process of remembering in the present, and the modalities by means of which the present perspective shapes processes of remembering, including practices of commemoration and representation of the past.
The volume deals with eight major thematic blocks revisiting specific practices in communism such as popular culture and everyday life, childhood, labor, the secret police, and the perception of "the system".
The volume deals with eight major thematic blocks revisiting specific practices in communism such as popular culture and everyday life, childhood, labor, the secret police, and the perception of "the system".
Reviews / Votes
"A powerful reminder of the continuing relevance of the Communist past and the complicated nature of its negotiation in public and private processes of remembering. Remembering Communism succeeds in drawing attention to the need to investigate areas of overlap between the two, especially since the memory of Communism continues to be highly politicized. Even more so, the volume draws attention to some of the most important loose ends in post-Communist studies: class memories, transmission of memory and historical knowledge, generationality and the impact of new media on the production and consumption of memories" * Slavonic & East European Review * "Dieser umfangreiche Sammelband erforscht die Erinnerung and den Kommunismus, indem er zwei Zugaenge bzw. Zwei Gruppen von Theorien - einerseits ueber Erinnerung, andererseits ueber Kommunismus - verbindet. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Bulgarien und Rumaenien, weil sie bisher im Vergleich zu anderen ehemals sozialistichen Staaten Europas wenig erforscht sind. Gemeinsam ist den Forschungsarbeiten, dass sie in die Perspektive aus der Gegenwart betonen. Die Aktualitaet und Prozesshaftigkeit der Erinnerung an den Kommunismus stehen somit im Zentrum." * Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West * "As someone based in the United States, where the word 'communism' is automatically and uncritically associated with the worst crimes of Stalinism, edited volumes like this one do much to make it safer for younger researchers to explore controversial topics and challenge the ideological status quo. The deep irony of studying the communist past is that democracy promised freedom of conscience and freedom of inquiry. Many institutions of higher learning laud the principle of academic freedom and resist political attempts to meddle in or direct scholarly pursuits. But in the case of the twentieth-century communist past, inquiry is hardly free, and, as Todorova points out in her introduction, the majority of scholarship produced has been funded by foundations and institutions charged with investigating the crimes of communism. For pushing back against this almost exclusive focus on the negative, Remembering Communism: Private and Public Recollections of Lived Experience in Southeast Europe is a most welcome and necessary addition to the literature." * H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Budapest
Hungary
Target group
College/higher education
Academic
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 39 mm
Weight
1115 gr
ISBN-13
978-963-386-034-2 (9789633860342)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Augusta Dimou | Maria Todorova | Stefan Troebst
Remembering Communism
Private and Public Recollections of Lived Experience in Southeast Europe
E-Book
10/2014
1st Edition
Central European University Press
€119.99
Available for download
Persons
Maria N. Todorova is a Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Augusta Dimou is Gerda Henkel Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Department of Cultural Studies, Chair of Comparative European History and Culture at the University of Leipzig. She is a historian specializing in contemporary comparative European History with a regional focus on Southeast and East-Central Europe. She is currently completing her habilitation on the development of intellectual property rights and cultural politics in twentieth-century Eastern Europe.
Stefan Troebst is Historian and Slavist. He is Professor of East European Cultural History, Leipzig University.
Augusta Dimou is Gerda Henkel Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Department of Cultural Studies, Chair of Comparative European History and Culture at the University of Leipzig. She is a historian specializing in contemporary comparative European History with a regional focus on Southeast and East-Central Europe. She is currently completing her habilitation on the development of intellectual property rights and cultural politics in twentieth-century Eastern Europe.
Stefan Troebst is Historian and Slavist. He is Professor of East European Cultural History, Leipzig University.
Content
List of figures, Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Similar Trajectories, Different Memories, PART I. THE STATE OF THE ART OF EASTERN EUROPEAN REMEMBRANCE, PART II. THINKING THROUGH THINGS: POPULAR CULTURE AND THE EVERYDAY, PART III. MEMORIES OF SOCIALIST CHILDHOOD, PART IV. WHAT WAS SOCIALIST LABOR?, PART V. THE UNFADING PROBLEM OF THE SECRET POLICE, PART VI. THE "CULTURAL FRONT" THEN AND NOW, PART VII. REMEMBERING EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS AND THE "SYSTEM", List of Contributors, Index